Happy anniversary Curiosity Rover

Today we celebrate the one year anniversary of the Curiosity Rover. You are probably saying didn't we celebrate that in August? You would be if you are going by the Earth's calendar. On the Martian calender a year equals 687 days to make this the 1 year anniversary that was scheduled to be the winking down period of the 23 month mission.

Ever since the mobile lab, Curiosity Rover, landed on the Red planet on August 5, 2012 we have been anxiously await news to hear what it has found. We all wanted to know if it will find signs that Mars could have supported some form of life? If that life is still thriving on the planet or long gone? Then, in September of 2013 came word the Curiosity has found water in the surface soil on Mars. The news made our imaginations run wild since a small amount of water on the surface probably means there is more deeper and that gives us a good chance for life.

"Our goal over that time was to find a habitable environment, and we did," said Ashwin Vasavada, deputy project scientist, in a NASA video. "We found a lake bed on Mars that we drilled into and found the ingredients and conditions that could have supported microbial life, if life ever was on Mars."

With that original goal meet NASA has given their rover an extension for its anniversary present. The new goal of the mission now is to figure out what changed to make Mars the planet it is now. To reach the new goal Curiosity will continue on the trek to Mount Sharp where it will be doing analysis on the rocks to try and find out what changed.

"We think the layered rocks there have captured the major climate changes in Mars' history," said Vasavada. "We can't wait to get there and figure it all out, but it's going to take a lot of driving."

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Jeff Wallace, a technology report for examiner.com, has a bachelor degree in computer science. Jeff took a class in data processing and has been hooked on computers ever since. After that class he bought his first computer and taught himself how to use and repair it. He has since built several custom systems and tutored people on the use of various applications. Jeff now educates people on how to stay safe when surfing the Internet.